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Last week, a student asked me if we could have a “Massive Minecraft Build Challenge”. I had no idea what this meant, but being a fan of Minecraft, I agreed. This student assured me he’d organise everything. He’d even lead the session. Now, how could I refuse a request like that!? 🙂

In the morning, my student beamed as he told me how he spent most of the night before clearing the land in the world we’d be using, and setting up a target board. The target board included topics for the builds. These were to be selected by shooting an arrow. This sounded amazing! I couldn’t wait for the session to happen.

During the day, the class was informed of our plans and tweets were sent out via our class account. Word spread amongst other classes too. Excitement was in the air!

The time came and we projected the world on to the whiteboard so everybody could see and hear the instructions. It seems we came into some problems, though. Only some students could access the world because they had the updated version of Minecraft. Also, only five students could access the world at one time. On the spot, my capable student suggested the class form groups of 4 or 5 to complete the task in their own worlds. The class accepted this idea and my student shot the arrow. It landed on the ‘castle’ square, so the topic was set.

For the next 40 minutes, there was a hum of engagement in my classroom. My students worked together to build their castles and chatted amongst themselves to assign tasks. Students who wouldn’t normally work together were co-operating and respecting each other’s comments and suggestions. I loved this! It was clear they all shared the same vision 🙂

As home time was nearing, students buddied up with peers from other groups to share their creations. They explained their builds, as well as their plans for improvements. I had already mentioned they could continue to work on their castles next week, hence their forward thinking.

Although the session didn’t go exactly as my student had planned, the ‘Massive Minecraft Build Challenge’ was a success. We faced some obstacles, but know what to expect next time.